A former president of the Ghana Bar Association, Sam Okudzeto, is advocating a constitutional amendment to dilute the powers of the president while simultaneously empowering the Council of State to serve as a check on the Head of State.
Mr Okudzeto, who has been appointed by President Akufo-Addo as a member of the Council of State, said the decisions of the Council were not binding on the president and its role was not impactful hence was not effective at championing the interests of Ghanaians.
Asked if he would advise a review of the law backing the body, he said: “Of course, because I have been praying about that since the beginning. Because I maintain that this present constitution that we have was tailored for Rawlings, that it was taken from a dictatorship and they created a dictator in the constitution by giving too much power to the president.”
The former Chair of the International Advisory Commission of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and a member of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association said in an interview on Joy FM on Friday, February 17 that he wanted to “see a Council of State which is more powerful but perhaps even more inclusive so that we can have people with acumen, experience, and knowledge who can be there as a proper guide to the presidency”.
For him, the voice of the council must be heard enough to “make a proper input before parliament passes a law to ensure that the law has been properly debated to ensure that the outcome is in the interest of the country”.
Source: classfmonline.com
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to me, i've not seen the relevance in this COUNCIL OF STATE institution. they are like "RUBBER" "STAMPS" picked to endorse whatever the President of the Republic comes out with. Parliamentarians, do something about this. Also, i blame the legal profession who refused to join others in drafting the 1992 constitution, because of military dictatorship since 1981 to the era when the country was about to enter into "DEMOCRATIC" governance
The President's Powers can be curbed by the People's rep and the People's rep alone and that I'm afraid is called Parliament. That is the only body that should be seen as a very serious check on Presidential Powers. To be honest, Parliament is weakened because of the Council of State. We can have the expertise and acumen needed in parliament. We must also do away with Central government appointees at the Assembly level and allow full devolution. This would allow full people representation at the local level and take the heat away from the Members of Parliament(MPs) who are mistakenly seen as agents of Development. MPs should come up with great ideas and laws that should make our nation "Great and Strong". They aren't able to because of the hold of Central Government in these areas. The people still look to Central Government for provisioning when seriously, the MP doesnt even have his/her own funds. The Common Fund given to MPs should be scrapped! The MPs as Ministers should also be scrapped. Anyway, enough ***barred word*** for a day!
I agree that the powers of the president must be diluted, but do we really need something called council of state??